The Omaha Sunday Bee 1
Magazine Page
tnsancM
Jlr. arry Furniss, the
Distinguished London
Cartoonist Now in New
York, Analyzes the Faces
and Features of American
Girls and Hints That
Our Manners Have Improved.
HARRY FURNISS, the distinguished
English caricaturist and all
round purveyor of humor as it la
laughed at on the native beath of lon
don Punch, la now on visit to this
eountry for the second time In twelve
years.
The lecture platform claimed Mr. Fur
niss during his former sojourn on these
shore. This time so he confesses he
Is here on business, to make money.
Mr. Furnlss's most effective caricatures,
probably, are of himself. He also drew
Gladstone In the gigantic poke collar
which .the statesman from that moment
adopted as his own special brand. It la
aid that Balfour'e legs have actually
grown clorely to roemblo Mr. Furnias's
By HARRY FURNISS.
(In an Interview.)
I DARE say Manhattan Island la tie
same shape, it was when I last cir
cumnavigated it twelve yeara ago.
But New York isn't not by ten or fifteen
stories, counting from about the fifteenth
on np Into the sky. Aa an artist. I'm a
bit grieved. The skyline I remember was
one to make the fingera Itch for pencil
and a square of Bristol board especially
at night with the terraced effects of
lights rising from near the ground on the
water front, higher and higher until they
reached the clouds above lower Broad
way. No. I'm not going to deplore the sky
scraper monopoly that now prevails from
river to river and from the Battery to
above Central Park. That's business. As
I've told yoo, I'm here on business. I
don't expect to" carry away any of your '
Ull buildings, but I feel entirely friendly
"toward the commercial spirit and finan
cial enterprise) that make costly
battaa soil pay dividends on the
Don't think I'm offering English hedge
rases ia exchange for American Beauties.
oremo
familiar bat devious perspective of them
and that Lord Randolph Churchill really
became the "bad boy" in the British Cab
inet after this conscientious artist had
pictured him that way.
Now, In hla maturity, Mr. Furniss has
the distinction of being the only artist to
illustrate the complete works of both
Dickens and Thackeray.
With amiable benevolence shining In
hla rubicund British countenance wtlch
needa only a trifle more nose to quite
remarkably resemble that of the late
King Edward Mr. Furniss so far forgot
bit admitted "business" standpoint as to
favor the readers of this newspaper with
the following impressions of people and
things American.
Honestly, there are a number of reasons
existing yet twenty-four hours after
landing why one hardly seems to have
left London. We came up the bay in a
thick fog. My daughter. Dorothy Furniss
also an artist, yon know thus missed
the best first impression of the Statue of
Liberty It was the same familiar old
fog. Waa it possible that we'd got turned
about in mid-ocean and were entering the
mouth of the Thames?
On the pier there waa momentary reas-
su ranee. Certainly the Port of New Tork
bears the world's palm for enthusiastle
custom officers. Tea, we were in New
York, but
This happened on the way to our hotel.
Eurely nowhere hut In London waa the
traffic of a, great thoroughfare managed
so deftly as that which let ns through
with only a momentary slackening of
speed, obedient to an alert and courteous
bluecoat'a uplifted finger. That ia a "first
impression'' worth recording. It is cor
roborated by one afternoon's drive about
the city In a motor car. Hats oft to New
Copyright, by Amrlcaa-Exualnr. Great Britain night Reserved.
rtGfficaTuriy(&i)B to Jtudvux
"In
York's Traffic Squad!
At the time of my former visit yon had
no mounted police, and It seemed to ms
that what I saw of the force was remark
' able more for Individual bulk than gen
eral physical effclency or attractive ap
pearance. . To-day I find that impression
completely reversed. New York's mount-'
ed police the men and their mounts
seem picked to meet the highest ideals in
that important service.
Well, well! The bewildering multiplic
ity of hotels of all aorta, big and little
unpretentious and de luxe, that have
sprung up since I stopped with Majoi
Pond at the old Everett House, bow. alas
bo more! It waa one with a royal Eng
Ush name on its signboard that took hi
sik Mm
The Difference Between English and American Girls By
England the men talk and the girls listen." "The American girl
: V
In and where etie but In England couM
one get tap room, a tea room, a "lounge'
and almllar coney conveniences thrown la
with all the comforts of home?
American women? Oh, yea, one' tees
Amorlran women everywhere. I believe
rnjf daughter anticipates getting acquaint
ed with tbera ai they are at home. Per
r f 7
Seen . j X
Mr. f
Furniss. f -
sonally, I've paid my respects to Ameri
can women and American girls upon nio-e
than one occasion In the past. But It's
a risky subject Suppose that, already
I should observe Improvements? . .Would
they thank me for ever observing that
there waa room for Improvement?
But, pshaw! You've said It yourselves
often enough In your own newspapers
how a certain class of American women
with feverish social ambitions were to
use an artist's expression "out of draw
ing" -owing to their anxious affectation
of Old World customs and manners.
If that charge ever were true, there's'
no evidence that It holds to-day. On the
contrary, It seems to me that you meet
nowhere women of any culture or refine,
ment at all who atand more wildly and
attractively on their own personal and' so
cial foundations. Already this fact has
appealed to me after an evening at the
theatre and an hour or two in one of the '
best restaurants. As to manners, It la
absurd to Imagine that, nowadays, In the
case of people who have manners at all,
there la any difference whether you meet
them In New York or Paris or London. .
It is rather short notice, this, when you .
bring up the 'matter of comparisons be
tween American girla and other girls.
But I am Inclined to believe my former
observations are verified. It ia noticeable
tha,t In face, the American girl is qultj
distinct from her English sister. There
is a difference In the way the npper lip
aweeps down from the outer edge of the
nostril; but more noticeable still Is the
fact that the. cheek bones of American
girls are not so prominent and the smooth
curve down the cheek to the chin is less
broken by smaller curves.
In social life the American girl charms
sn Englishman by her natural and unaf
fected manner. Our English girls are
very carefully brought up, and are con
tinually warned that this thing or that
Is "bad form." Aa a result, when they
enter society they are more or less In
fear of aaylng or doing something that will
not be considered suitable. As a matter
of fact they are not lacking In energy or
vivacity, but these qualities are sup
pressed In public, and only come to the
surface In the society of intimates
American girls from childhood upward
are much more Independent; they have
much more freedom and encouragement
in coming forward than ours. The vivac
ity and liberty expected of an America
girl In social Intercourse are considered
as I ea? -bad form for our girls. '
The observant stranger will. If aa artist,
also be struck by the fact that the face
Harry Furniss.
talks and the men listen." ...
. .
of an American girt, as wsil at the volet
Is often that of a child; lu fact.; If one
were not. afraid of being. misunderstood,.
. and therefore thought rude, one could bet
.ter. describe the American girl by saying
that ahe .baa a baby's face on a woman's '
bodjr than by any word painting or .brush -painting.
The large forehead, round eyes,
round cheeks, and round Hps of the baby
, remain; and, not long ago, It -was the
fashion to dress the hair ornamentally,
after the fashion of a doll, thus com
pleting the picture.
The eyes of an American girl are closer
together than those of her English consln,
and are smaller; her hands are smaller,
too, and so are her feet, but neither are
so well shaped as the English girl's.
Let ns follow the American girl from
' her babyhood upward. First, there la the
" baby, plump, bright-eyed and with more
expression than the average English child;
a little older, see her still plump, short-
legged, made to look atout by the double
covering of the leg bulging over the
boots; -older still, but still some yeara
. from ber teens, she Is atlll plump from
the Hp of her toe to her eyebrow, with an
expression and a manner ten years In ad
vance of her years, snd yon may take It
from this age onward the American girl
Is always tea years in advance of an
English gtrL
Next, the schoolgirl, then that ungainly
age, "sweet seventeen." She seems twenty-seven,
and thenceforward her plump
ness disappears generally, but remains in
her face, and the cheeks and ths chin of
the baby are sUll with her.
Suddenly, ten yeara before the time,
and In one season, happens what in the
Ufa of aa English matron would take ten.
The bubble bursts, the baby face col
lapses, just as though you pricked - with
a pin, and she Is left sans teeth, sans
eyes, sans beauty, sans everything.
This Is ths American girl In a harry,
I and these remarks only apply to the ex
hausted New York, the sensational Chi
cago, the anxious Washington and the
overstrained child of that portion of Amer
ica la a hurry.
As I've said, these are observations
made heretofore, and they may be open
to revision. There were many exceptions,
of course; not everybody la America Is in
a harry. I've a feeling already that the
pace here ia not so fast aa it was and ttat
cultivation of a calmer, more leisures
' manner of going about business and pleas
ure already has produced beneficial re
sults. Nowhere will they be observed
sooner than in the independent, thiak'tuc.
adaptable American girl. -
